


Background Noise

by take_me_adventuring



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: High School AU, M/M, Oral Sex, Some Swearing, i write other things i swear, it gets very sad, just not lately, only a little bit of ray and ryan, so if you want fluff please dont do this to yourself, they're a lot less involved
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-24
Updated: 2015-11-24
Packaged: 2018-05-03 04:28:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5276657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/take_me_adventuring/pseuds/take_me_adventuring
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Michael Jones loves to travel, which is great because he travels <em> a lot </em>. His constant migration only seems to prove a problem when blonde haired, bright eyed boys get involved. Michael survived his last encounter, but this time he thinks that tearing himself away might just tear him apart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Background Noise

Michael Jones loves to travel, which is great because he travels _a lot_. He started out in New Jersey, moved to Carolina, then Washington, Wyoming, Georgia, South Dakota, North Dakota, Connecticut, Maine, Utah, Florida, New York and finally, currently, Texas. However, after the bustling streets and perpetual hum of New York City, the sleepy little town- approximately 19 miles NorthWest of Austin- aptly named Jonestown, was a tad too dull for his liking. While supplying Michael with a nice break from the chaos that his usual big cities bring, it lacks the punch of adventure, the promise of wild experiences, that he loves about traveling. Moving, he should say, he doesn’t travel, he moves, with his family, because his dad does contract work all around the country and he’s only 17, jumping from school to school. His family shares Michael’s love for new places and the three of them get along famously, meaning that skitting across the country works surprisingly well for them. 

Sometimes it’s hard, he thinks, hard on him and his ma not being able to settle down and make proper friends. Leaving Georgia was difficult as hell due to a certain man with eyes Michael found a little too hard to pull away from, but they managed. Michael kind of liked it actually, the freedom of having nothing to tie him down to one place. The listless feeling of having no responsibility by other people, the ability to glide away seamlessly at a moment’s notice. He made friends of course, was never one for travelling alone, they just weren’t good friends. He’d be friendly, chat with people, see them outside of school -even had a few flings every now and then- but he always made sure they knew that he’d be gone soon, always made sure never to get too attached.

The people in Jonestown are nice enough, a bit stale, but again, it was a nice way to relax after the city. He got along really well with this kid called Ray. A short, scraggly fella with rectangular glasses lined in black, who managed to have constantly have stubble, despite being told off for it every day, and was never without his little red D-S. Kid hated this town, and not in an angsty teenage way, well not entirely, more in a legitimate I’m-getting-out-of-this-shithole-as-soon-as-I-graduate kind of way. Ray was quiet, had an odd sense of humour but it was one that managed to crack Michael up a fair bit. He’d be a good friend to have until Michael inevitably leaves.

On the third day something changes. On the third day he walks into homeroom and the chatter is… off somehow. Michael ignores it as he wanders into the room staring at his phone, some stupid picture a friend from New York had sent him. He knew the drill, they’d text back and forth for a week, if that, before Michael stops messaging first and eventually, the other person does too. He looks up when he gets to the desk he usually sits at, blinking in confusion when he’s met with a face he hasn’t seen before and a set of sparkling green eyes. The oddity of the chatter had gone.

“Sorry mate, nicked your seat haven’t I?” He spoke, and the source of the funny sounding noise was revealed by a starkly English accent, which was apparently home sick for the first two days of school.

“Don’t worry about a thing, I can sit on the other side.” He flashes the man a dimple riddled smile, moving to fulfill his word and sit next to Ray on his other side. The Brit perked up ever so slightly when he heard Michael speak.

“No don’t be ridiculous, of course you can sit here! Look, I’ll shift over one and then we’re all set, see?” He finishes his last word with a slide onto the chair over, Michael sits down in his spot cautiously.

The boy laughs, and it is loud, “Don’t look so bloody terrified, I haven’t poisoned the seat or anything. I’m Gavin, Gav, British fuck, whichever works for you.” The lanky looking fellow throws his hand towards Michael, eyes crinkling with a cheery smile.

“Michael.” He grabs his hand, shaking it once, and drops it.

The crinkle in the corner of Gavin’s eyes smooths out a little as he throws an unsure glance at Ray. _Is he like this with everyone?_ Ray just nods.

Set at ease, Gavin continues his assault of friendliness, “So where’re you from Michael?”

Michael _hates_ this question. If there’s one single thing he doesn’t like about constantly moving it’s definitely the question that absolutely fucking everyone feels the need to ask him.

“New Jersey, originally, but most recently New York, you?” Gavin looks vaguely taken aback by the question, Michael isn’t sure if it’s because he wasn’t expecting a real answer or he forgot that he’s foriegn too, possibly both. Nevertheless, he stumbles through an answer,

“Oh, uh, Oxfordshire, England, but duh, accent, obviously…” Definitely both.

Michael laughs, firstly at Gavin’s stuttered response but then at the dumb grin he has on his bird-like face, clearly not having a clue of what’s going on but nonetheless happy that Michael’s laughing.

“What’s so funny?”

“You’re a fucking idiot.”

Gavin just grins, feeling an automatic connection at their mutual foreign status and the ease of conversation between them.

~

They spent a fair amount of time together that weekend, both relishing in the natural flow of talking to the other, sharing anecdotes and sharing more than was probably necessary. Over the next week they saw each other outside of school every few days, usually at Michael’s suggestion.

Despite having a lot of casual friends he does treasure them in the moment. He has thousands of happy memories with thousands of different people and he’ll be forever grateful for that. Gavin was loud and obnoxious and asked a lot of dumb questions, but Michael is happy to have new friend. But new friends don’t last long, with his sunkissed hair matching his seamlessly tanned skin and his wondrous eyes that could make you forget the world, Michael was soon whisked away in Gavin’s personal whirlwind of fuckery. 

Not unlike Michael, Gavin found himself staring into chestnut eyes for a moment too long, getting caught up in prodding the boy’s buttons just to see the fire that lay beneath them, noting every freckle on his sprinkled cheeks, knowing every expression that revealed his precious little dimples and how to pull said expression out of him. Gavin was crushing hard.

Michael kisses him one day when they’re playing co-op Goat Simulator. Gavin had just found the last trophy and gotten them an achievement, jumping on the couch with his controller in excitement before collapsing to his knees next to Michael again, breathless. The other boy just stares at him for a moment as Gavin grins like the cheshire cat. Giving him a small smile in return, he leans in and slots his lips against Gavin’s, for what felt like half a second, and gets back to the game. Gavin didn’t even have time to register the act, let alone kiss back.

The second time Michael kisses Gavin is literally seconds after he stops wringing his brain over the first time, deciding that fuck it, what it meant wasn’t important, it was nice, and that was that. They were lying on lounge chairs by Gavin’s family pool on a hot ass day, the sun reflecting off the layers upon layers of sunscreen Michael had slathered on his pale stomach. They were just chatting, about nothing really, when Michael sits up suddenly. Gavin mirrors him at the swift movement and watches as he pads his bare feet over to his chair and sits down next to him. Gavin’s breath is barely there as Michael stares at him intensely, his eyes glancing down to his lips and back up again before Gavin realises what he wants. All he does is tilt his head slightly and Michael’s lips are fitted into his.

This kiss lasts longer than the first, long enough for Gavin to kiss back, for Michael’s hand to find its way to rest on his cheek, for their mouths to open and his tongue to be caught up in Michael’s. But it was short enough, soft enough, to leave Gavin all the more confused about where the pair stood, about what these stolen moments meant.

Gavin asks him a week later, when Michael’s hand finds itself tracing patterns onto his hips while they cuddled on the couch. It’s not an odd thing for them, and totally platonic, completely, undoubtedly platonic. Michael just shrugs, comments rather flippantly that he wanted to, and that was that. Only that wasn’t that. Only Gavin still didn’t know what was going on between them. But that was Michael Jones, and Gavin, as always, just went with it, enjoying the fling while it lasted.

~

It’s a few days later, when they’re lying side by side on Michael’s living room floor, and Michael is telling Gavin about how much he hates the agonizingly slow nature of his current residence. They were talking about something dumb that Michael and his friends did back in New York, Gavin scoffed about how ‘that would never happen around here’. To Michael that was exactly the fucking problem. He explains his love of exploring, his love of new places, of looking around in a setting he’s never been before and knowing that there are memories waiting for him on every street corner. Gavin’s listening intently when he notices that the fire in Michael’s eyes is back. The raging inferno that usually accompanies the other man’s temper. The heat that Gavin spends hours prodding Michael’s annoyances just to catch a glimpse of. Gavin doesn’t think he’s ever been as attracted to someone as he was to Michael when he saw those flames lighting up the boy’s bronze eyes.

“...it’s just the fact that I can be somewhere that’s so fresh to me, so clean and raw and ready for me to do dumb shit with an entirely new group of people. It’s so freeing, so, so- just fucking nice.”

There’s a lethargic pause, Gavin spoke without thinking, barely even registering that his mouth was moving, “Go on a date with me.”

Michael’s head turns to face him, he pulls himself up so he’s sitting, leaning back with his palms spread out behind him, looking back at him, “Gavin…”

“That’s only- I mean, if you- you don’t have to…” Gavin sits up too, staring down at his hands in his lap nervously.

Michael’s heart is simultaneously in his throat and his stomach, he wants to, looking at the fidgeting idiot in front of him he really fucking wants to- but he can’t.

“I don’t know how long it’ll be until I have to leave Gavin, I mean, I want to, really, I just… I don’t know if I can.” He took a deep breath, deciding to tell Gavin the one story he rarely ever shares, “Back in Georgia, when skipping town was still fairly new to me, there was this guy- Ryan -and we hit it off instantly, kind of like us.” He looked over at Gavin with a fond smile, Gavin wasn’t sure if it was meant for him or Ryan. “Although we started dating almost immediately, and he was practically the polar opposite of you,” Michael laughed, “all introverted and shy but remarkably suave when he wanted to be, and always subtly in control of the situation, always filing away little tidbits of information…” Michael sighed, the smile he’d built up disappearing.

“And then we left, packed up and shipped out to Dakota. I wanted to keep seeing him, wanted to take our chances at long distance and he agreed, so we did. We texted every day, skyped whenever we could, always sad smiles and empty longing that no amount of phone calls could ever fill. We were together in Georgia for three months and all it took was three weeks of  distance and we fell apart.” The bitterness in the boy’s voice was apparent even to him, “I was so sure that it could work, that this great aspect of my life would slide perfectly into place with everything else and the realisation that it just can’t happen, it messed with my head man.”

Michael looked at him, eyes wider than usual, unmistakable vulnerability shining through, and Gavin heart sank. “I can’t do that again Gav, not when I could be told to pack my bags at any moment, I already like you too much I can’t… I can’t just go ahead and make it hurt a million times more, for both of us.”

Gavin frowned, chewing on his lip before sighing, “Fair enough. I’m sorry, that you went through that...”

Michael smiled softly at him, reaching out and lifting Gavin’s chin, pressing their lips together as the other boy pushed his sadness aside. “Doesn’t mean I want to stop all this though.”

 _Good_ , Gavin thought, smiling as he pulled away.

~ 

The next thing either of them know they’re hanging out almost every day. It’s been almost four weeks since Michael arrived and the upcoming holidays were only a few days away. Both of the boys are giddy with excitement that Gavin’s parents were leaving him and the house behind for a vacation back to England. Michael spends a lot time there over the next week or so, playing video games, making out, just doing what they do.

One afternoon Michael comes home to regretful looking parents and he’s terrified that he'll be leaving already. Instead he ends the conversation with a hurried apology and a fumble with his phone. The dial tone echoes through his skull as he waits for Gavin to pick up.

“Micoo? You just left is everything ok?” Michael quickly notes how his accent is accentuated over the phone before blurting a reply.

“Yes”

“Oookay, what’s up then?”

“No I mean yes, I’m saying yes Gavin!” He was too antsy to realise he was making absolutely zero sense.

“Michael, what are you saying yes to?” Gavin asks him slowly, half concerned, half amused. 

“I’m saying yes to a date you mong.”

There was silence for a few moments. Michael hesitated, his jittered confidence slowly seeping away. “Gavin?

“But what about… y’know...”

Michael instantly perked up again, “That’s the thing! Dad’s contract got extended, we’re anchored here for at least another four months!" 

There was another quiet moment as Gavin processed before chirping out “I’ll pick you up at 8pm tomorrow. Wear something nice, yeah?”

“Define nice.”

“Just don’t wear a t-shirt.”

“Oh so we’re skipping the date and going straight to fucking then?”

“Michael! No! I just meant- oh you know what I meant.” Gavin huffed, “I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

“Yeah, I’m looking forward to it.”

Michael couldn’t stop himself from grinning when they hung up, not until 8pm the next day.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter 1 of 4 (or 5, I'm unsure at this point), hope you're enjoying it so far, hmu on Tumblr at [roosterteeth-not-retweet](http://roosterteeth-not-retweet.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Thanks for reading :)


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